Bastard
by Roguetamlin
Summary: Chapter 4 now up. Alec's attempt to rescue a captured X5 from a mysterious lab leads him to more questions than answers.
1. Default Chapter

Alec, Max, Logan et al, are owned by James Cameron and his people. Sophie and Tess are mine though.  
  
....................................  
  
Alec was early to the rendezvous and it was this fact that saved his life. Otherwise, he wouldn't have caught that it was a trap. He was thankful he had talked Max out of coming. Despite their newfound affection for each other, he was expendable, she wasn't. Savior of the world and all. The plan had been for him to meet up with some new contacts in New York, hopefully reinforcements. But as he stood under the great ceiling of Grand Central Station, he knew it was fubar.  
  
He scanned the crowd and could see the Familiars placing themselves strategically. They didn't seem to realize he was their target. But soon they would, he had no doubt. He could still see one way out, through an archway to a train that was boarding. He started sauntering towards it, watching the Familiars milling around. Then, he saw one of them point towards him. Crap. He still hoped to not alert all of Manhattan to his presence, so he attempted to nonchalantly run as if late for his train. Crapcrap. The Familiars were having none of it though. One attempted to block his path, but he was able to blur around them and sprinted towards the platform. He heard shots ring out behind them, and felt a slug entering his shoulder. It hurt like Hell, but he had been trained to ignore such trivialities as pain and he was able to board the train as it pulled out of the station. He watched long enough to make sure the familiars had been left behind, then he slunk into the bathroom. The bullet was lodged in his shoulder. He was going to need to get help to get it out. He cleaned the wound and bandaged it with strips from his t-shirt. He was going to need help sooner rather than later and he didn't even know where this train was going.  
  
He ventured out and found the conductor, who told him that the train was headed for Boston and would be arriving in 4 hours. Alec slumped into a seat and racked his brain trying to remember who the Hell he knew in Boston. Figuring it out only made it worse.  
  
It took him two days to find her. She was Sophie Crawford, an old girlfriend of Biggs's. Alec had only met her a few times, and wasn't at all sure what she knew. Most of what he knew about her came from what Biggs had told him. Which wasn't much. She was a tall brunette, curvy with a great sense of humor. Alec had admired his friend's taste. He knew that they had kept in touch and that Biggs had spoken to her a few days before his death.  
  
  
  
He saw her leaning over a car parked along a tree lined street. She stood up and Alec realized she was holding a child of about two, who was obviously the daughter of his old pal Biggs. Could this suck anymore? Alec asked himself. Taking a deep breath, he walked up to the brunette mother.  
  
"Hi, Sophie, I don't know if you remember me.."  
  
She turned and looked at him, then nodded. "I don't remember your name, but you're a friend of Biggs, right?"  
  
"Um..yeah. My name's Alec. But that probably wasn't how Biggs's introduced me before. Look, I'm really sorry to be so pushy, but I've been shot and I need your help."  
  
Sophie opened her mouth as if to refuse. "I have nowhere else to go. I'm really sorry."  
  
Sophie sighed resignedly shifted the child from one hip to another. "Can you tell me something first. Where is that bastard, Biggs? He hasn't called me for two months."  
  
Alec sighed; he had known this would come up. "I'm sorry about that too. Biggs is dead. There's a lot I need to tell you, but that's all I can say here." Alec looked around him to accentuate the publicness of the location. "Can we go inside?"  
  
Sophie looked shocked. God, and that's only the beginning. I hate my life, thought Alec.  
  
Her apartment was small and crowded with papers, baby gear and books. She gestured to an empty chair into which he flopped. She flinched at the chair's creaking reply.  
  
"I have to get Tess settled, hang on." She left the room for a few minutes, giving Alec a chance to collect his thoughts. He took off his jacket and sweater and started unpeeling the bandages from his shoulder. It was infected, but if the bullet could be taken out it would heal. Sophie returned and immediately went to look at Alec's now bare back. She had a bottle of hydrogen peroxide in her hand.  
  
"I'm going to need something stronger than this. Is the bullet still in there?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"I'm not a doctor. I can't do this. Go to a hospital." She slammed the bottle on the table.  
  
"I can't. Look, I know I'm asking a lot and you hardly know me."  
  
"That's one hell of an understatement! All I know about you is that you're a friend of that bastard who went off and died on me!" With this she ground to a halt and sat heavily on the couch. In a dead voice: "What happened?"  
  
"I need to know what he told you about himself, about us." Alec looked Sophie squarely in the eye.  
  
Sophie's eye's narrowed. "Biggs didn't tell me much. He told me he worked for a research center in Wyoming; He really didn't talk much about it. I got the feeling he had no family. He just introduced you as his friend. That's all I really know. What happened to him? Tell me, please."  
  
"He died in Seattle, he."Alec took a deep breath, "He was killed by a lynch mob. I was talking to him on the phone when he was attacked. It was terrible." He couldn't look at her, the words were so hard.  
  
"Oh god", Sophie's voice had become tiny. Alec only felt that way.  
  
Alec managed to talk Sophie through removing the bullet. Fortunately, she still had a bottle of Biggs' favorite scotch. Even so, Alec gritted his teeth through most of the procedure. After Sophie bandaged his shoulder, and started setting up the couch for him to sleep on.  
  
"I'm sorry it's not more. Since Tess was born, it's been so crowded."  
  
"S'okay, it's great. My place in Seattle is even smaller."  
  
Sophie stood up and looked Alec in the eye. "So why are you here? Why darken my doorstep? Who shot you?"  
  
"It's a long story and you're happier not knowing."  
  
"I don't know anything. How can I possibly be happier not knowing anything about why Biggs died? Why a lynch mob killed him while he was talking on the phone? Did they then shoot you?"  
  
"Not exactly."  
  
"Who did? What trouble were you two in?"  
  
"It wasn't just the two of us. Did you ever see the tattoo on the back of Biggs' neck? Do you know what it meant? I have one too, it's hidden now, but it always comes back." Sophie was quiet. He looked at her. "Do you know what that means? It means we're not like you. We were made in a lab to fight for truth, justice and the American way."  
  
"He was a transgenic. I knew something was different, but I never imagined. Oh it all makes such sense now." She looked up at him. "You getting shot. Is it to do with the situation at Terminal City? I've been following it on the news. It's terrible."  
  
"Yeah, short story. I was trying to get reinforcements, but it was a trap. I was shot and had to run. I ended up here and you're the only person I know in Boston who wouldn't shoot me on sight."  
  
"I probably don't want to know this, but what did you and Biggs do for Manticore I mean what were you.. bred? to do?" She seemed to be holding her breath, afraid of his answer.  
  
"We were assassins, covert ops, cat burglars, soldiers, whatever Manticore needed. When we worked together it was usually because they needed someone really important taken out. Otherwise we usually worked alone." Alec avoided Sophie's eyes while he said this.  
  
"What was it like? Was it hard to kill people?" Alec was quiet for a long moment, "Sometimes, but it was what we were created to do. What they built us for. To fight and to die for our masters." Alec's voice was tinged with bitterness.  
  
"I never imagined Biggs was anything so.I don't know, I just thought he was a normal guy with an odd tattoo who took many strange business trips."  
  
"That was the training. We were supposed to be undetectable even under deep cover. We were trained to appear normal."  
  
Sophie nodded.  
  
That night, Alec lay on the lumpy couch, sleepless. He could hear Sophie crying quietly in the next room. Will someone cry for me when I'm gone? He thought desolately. Will anyone even notice?  
  
He thought about Max. She had probably figured out by now that the meeting had gone pear shaped. They had agreed before he had left that he would not contact them in case of a trap. What would he do now? Go back to Seattle? He found himself loath to do so, but where else could he go? Things had gotten.complicated in Seattle. Max had come to rely on him more and more especially after Logan had to leave Terminal City. Then, Joshua had arranged living quarters for the three of them in close proximity and the constant togetherness had made them more like a family than before, for good and ill. But will they miss me? Will they think I'm dead?  
  
Alec sighed deeply. Need a plan. His shoulder was bulletless, but still needed a few days before it would be ok. If given a choice, he would have chosen to stay here and try to help Sophie. Her crying had died down, but he couldn't shake a feeling of responsibility for her and Tess. Biggs had been his buddy, the closest thing he had to family before Manticore's fall. Crap, getting sentimental, bad for plan. Need plan.  
  
Alec awoke, still planless, to the sounds of activity in the kitchen. He sat up and tested his shoulder. Stiff, but better. He got up and went into the kitchen. Sophie saw him and gestured towards a seat.  
  
"Have you thought about what you're going to do?" She asked handing a cup of coffee.  
  
"Yeah, but I haven't got a plan yet."  
  
"Well, you can stay here as long as you need. It will be cool to have another grown up around. Oh, are you a secret?"  
  
Alec looked confused.  
  
"I mean do I have to keep you a secret."  
  
"Oh! Um, well I guess you should tell people I'm an old friend from out of town or maybe a friend of a friend. I wouldn't mention Biggs though. I've never used the name  
  
Alec here so no-one knows me by that."  
  
"What's your real name?"  
  
"X5494 is my designation."  
  
This was clearly not what Sophie had been expecting. "Oh." There was a long silence. "I have to go to work, will you be ok?"  
  
Alec nodded towards a television covered with books. "Does it work?"  
  
Sophie nodded.  
  
"Then I'm cool."  
  
Alec watched the TV until the news came on. Terminal City. Nothing had changed, but it made him no less anxious to see it. Out of boredom and habit he began reading through the papers and books strewn across the apartment. Sophie apparently worked for a company called Conrad Pharmaceuticals. A small bell went off in Alec's head. She seemed to be working on a patent for some sort of drug that reversed a rare deficiency that caused seizures. The seizures, Alec realized from the papers were the very seizures that the X5 class suffered from without tryptophan. By the time Sophie came him he had some questions for her.  
  
"Soph, what do you do exactly?"  
  
"I'm a lab tech, why?"  
  
He held up some papers. "You've been working on our tryptophan problem."  
  
"What?" She grabbed the paper from him, putting Tess down.  
  
"X5s, that's me and Biggs' class. We were almost perfect, but we got a few kinks. One of which is we have these seizures. THESE seizures." He held up a piece of paper. "By the looks of it you guys are close to a solution."  
  
Sophie looked at the papers. "I guess. Alec, does this mean that Biggs was just with me to get information?"  
  
Alec looked at her squarely. "That's probably why he initially contacted you, but Manticore fell over a year ago, and I know he talked to you after that. I also know that Biggs kept his visits to you secret from our superiors, a punishable offense. He kept Tess a secret from me. He was serious about you. Big time."  
  
She looked relieved, then confused. "If he told you about me, why not Tess?"  
  
Alec tensed slightly, "A girlfriend on the outside we were punished for, but a child they would have grabbed and.Biggs' couldn't be sure I wouldn't crack under reprogramming. He couldn't risk it. "  
  
"Oh, god." She picked up Tess and held her close. The child squirmed out of her grip.  
  
Alec was quiet. He watched her form crumple slightly. He put his hand on her shoulder.  
  
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I came here and dumped this all on you."  
  
Sophie looked up at him, "S'okay. It's better to know."  
  
He smiled, "I wish I didn't know any of it." He touched her cheek. "I wish I could lose myself here. Never look back on it all, never remember."  
  
Sophie smiled back, but sadness was still in her eyes. "So this tryptophan thing, if we figure it out, will it help your people?"  
  
"Yeah, it would be great, but I doubt your company will just give it to us. Manticore was probably paying Conrad a fortune to find this. All Terminal City has is rats and transgenics."  
  
"Well, why can't you just steal it? I can keep an eye out for documents."  
  
"That's pretty risky for you. But my papers look good, maybe they'll hire me."  
  
The next day Sophie brought Alec into her building. The papers Max had procured Alec worked their magic and Alec worked his charm and these combined into a job as a janitor.  
  
"It's perfect. Everybody always ignores janitors and they get clearance everywhere!" Alec told Sophie over dinner that night. He felt like celebrating for the first time since. since a very long time and took them all out for dinner.  
  
"Do you know what you're looking for?" Sophie asked him in a conspiratorial whisper. She's so sweet, thought Alec; I can see why Biggs fell for her. Damnit, too sentimental, stop it.  
  
"Alec, are you ok?"  
  
"Huh, oh, yeah I know what to kinds of things to look for, if not exactly what. It's the kind of thing I was made to do." He actually felt excited about this mission. His excitement faded on the way home; it turned into the being followed tingle as soon as they left.  
  
"Soph" Alec said in a low voice, grabbing Sophie's arm and pulling her close. "Hold on to Tess and do what I say, we're being followed."  
  
"Who? Where?"  
  
"Shhhhhh!"  
  
He stood and listened. He could hear two people, following them, 20 feet back. He gestured to Sophie to get behind him and turned to face his attackers. He tested his shoulder (stiff) and got into a defensive posture. Two guys came out, one in a blue jumpsuit the other in denim. He had no clue who the hell they were, but they didn't look like police, familiars or steelheads. Leaving only a half dozen other possibilities that he knew of. They looked like dock workers and were carrying crowbars.  
  
"Guys, how can I help you?"  
  
"Give us your head."  
  
Hmmm, looks like revenge, Alec decided. "I think that may be a problem, there being several other requests out for it ahead of yours. Actually, what is your party's name?" At this moment, Tess started to cry. Alec's opponents looked behind him, giving him the opening to attack. He decked the guy on his right, knocking him back, then swept the other guy down. He turned to face his first opponent, who attacked him with the crow bar. He blocked with his left arm and did an upward strike with the base of his right hand into the guy's nose, feeling the crunch of bone vibrate through his arm. The guy fell back, leaving Alec to tackle number two. He turned to the other guy and smiled. He could hear Sophie's breath sharp and jagged and knew she was probably horrified by what she had just seen. He needed to end this quickly. The guy looked worried.  
  
"Why don't you go back and make sure you've got the right guy, cos I don't think you do. And I hope we don't need go over this again." He grabbed the guy by the shoulders, spun him around and thwacked him on the back of the head, knocking him out. He then turned to Sophie, who looked, as he had expected, horrified. She had Tess so close, like she wanted to press the child back into herself. He walked over to them, unsure what to do.  
  
"We need to get out of here." He gently touched Sophie's arm. He was surprised that she did not pull away, and relieved. He led her away from the scene. After a couple of blocks, he stopped and looked in her face. She avoided his eyes.  
  
"Sophie, I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry you had to see that."  
  
"Who were those guys, why did they want you?"  
  
"I don't know, something me or one of mine did. Soph, if you want me out of the apartment, I understand."  
  
"No, it's ok, but lets get home. Carry Tess, we'll move faster." She handed the girl to Alec. Tess grabbed on as for dear life. They took a roundabout way home, Alec's senses primed for signs of someone following them.  
  
That night, Alec sat up all night keeping watch. Shortly before dawn, Sophie came into the living room and saw him peeking out the window.  
  
"Alec you should sleep. You'll be a wreck at work."  
  
"Don't need to sleep, I'm ok."  
  
Sophie looked at him curiously and sat down on the couch. "Alec, talk to me."  
  
"What about?" He replied not moving his eyes.  
  
"You probably killed that guy tonight. Why?" She didn't sound accusing, but curious.  
  
Alec shifted to face her. "I.I didn't.I couldn't let them hurt you or Tess."  
  
"So if we hadn't been there, you wouldn't have killed him?"  
  
"I don't know, but probably I would have just taken off before they got that close."  
  
"So we slow you down?"  
  
"You change the parameters of the situation. I just have to react differently. Defend instead of elude." He turned back to the window. "I'm sorry, I should get out of here before I put the two of you in real danger. I'll find someplace else to crash tonight"  
  
"Alec, don't. Look, I don't want you out. I just need to know what having you here entails. How many people are after you?"  
  
Alec looked at her, surprised. He wasn't used to people wanting him to stick around, and was unsure how to react.  
  
"I don't really know. I mean there are the people specifically after me first. That's mostly from jobs I've done. There are the people who want people I know. That's mostly the guys who shot me in New York. There are the people who want me for things they think I've done. And then there's the people who want me for who I am."  
  
"And they all want to kill you?"  
  
"Kill me, torture me, convict me, do experiments, blahblahblah."  
  
Sophie regarded him silently.  
  
"So, do you still want me to stay?" Alec braced himself for the boot.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Why?"  
  
For some reason, this made Sophie laugh. She got up and kissed him on the cheek. "Just because."  
  
With that, Sophie went into the kitchen to start breakfast, leaving Alec staring behind her.  
  
Alec quickly got into the swing of his job, and the next couple of days flew by. The news from Terminal City became more dire, but he knew that if he could find the solution to the tryptophan problem, it was more use to the cause than if he were there. And he could tell the information was somewhere in Conrad Pharmaceuticals. It became clear that the testing was primarily being done here, but that transgenic blood was being used. It appeared that the blood was coming from another source. It seemed to be coming from one or two transgenics, probably X5s. But thus far Alec couldn't tell where these transgenics were being held.  
  
TBC 


	2. Chapter 2

"MacDowell!"  
  
Alec looked up from where he was sweeping the floor, in close proximity to one of the labs, at the sound of his name. Or at least the name he'd given Conrad Pharmaceuticals. One of the white coats was gesturing to him.  
  
Alec put on his best charming smile and sauntered over, "Yes sir?"  
  
The white coat was not immune to Alec's charm and smiled back. "Come with me."  
  
He was led down several darkened corridors to an old storage room. The white coat pulled out a large key ring, and after much jingling got the door open. Inside were boxes, many boxes, of what Alec didn't know. Papers probably.  
  
Alec was right. The white coat opened one and indeed it was packed with papers. "All of these need to be taken down to the incinerator, so we need you to load them up and take em down. Ok?"  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
White coat nodded, "There's a dolly outside." With that, he nodded and then departed.  
  
Alec looked around and then and there decided that he was quite possibly the luckiest bastard alive. A lucky bastard with many long hours of boring work ahead of him. By the end of the day he had managed to dig through half the boxes, but he found what he was looking for.  
  
The papers indicated that blood from a transgenic with the tryptophan deficiency was being used to create a more permanent solution to the problem. When they had reached puberty, the X5s were given a booster shot that cut the tremors to a more manageable level. Furthermore, whoever the transgenic was that the blood had been drawn from had never received this original booster. Only one of the X5s from the '09 escape would have not gotten it.  
  
Alec had been avoiding thinking about Max, but now this brought her back to the front of his mind. She would want him to do something about this. He was tempted to call her, to talk to her. This led him to other things he wanted to do. Sophie.  
  
Over dinner he watched her out of the corner of his eye feeding Tess. He thought of Max that night, tossing and turning on his couch, though.  
  
He had watched Logan leave Terminal City, comforted Max, holding her as she sobbed. She had trusted him so much after, counted on him. Joshua had found a large private area and together they made it into an apartment for the three of them. The closeness was strange for all of them, but they all became much closer. Closer then they had ever been to anyone in their lives. He pushed the image of just how close out of his mind. Every day, more troops had amassed outside the perimeter of Terminal City. Every day they had become more desperate. Food, medicine and water were in short supply. Max was able to keep things together, but she needed Joshua and Alec more and more. Logan, unable to remain in the compound, kept information coming their way, as well as help getting through what supplies he could with his people. It was from Logan that the tip came in about the New York offer. It seemed too good to be true, and as it turned out, was. The offer supposedly came from a group  
  
Max had come to Alec after the day after the offer had come forward. He had been sitting on the roof over their apartment, watching the boats in the harbor, and she came and sat next to him. So close, like that night, so close.  
  
"We have to at least consider that the offer is legit."  
  
"I don't like it, Max."  
  
"I know. But Logan thinks they're legit, and we're desperate. We need help. If they can get us the reinforcements.."  
  
"And if it's a trap?" He turned to look at her. He could see the desperation in her eyes, and wanted so much to take that away, to make it better. Lying now, on a bumpy couch in Sophie's tiny living room, he knew that was why he had agreed to go. Not because it was a good plan. Because it gave Max an inkling of hope. Now, he couldn't face Max again without something. He had hoped the information in the boxes would lead to a cure for the seizures that were starting to plague the X5s as more and more time passed from their last boosters at Manticore. He'd been lucky so far, but he knew his time would come too.  
  
Well, I guess my next destination is the lab, he thought. At least he could spring the transgenic trapped inside. That would make Max happy. Yeah and another mouth to feed. But if he were lucky, he might be able to get more information about this fix.  
  
In the morning,, he asked Sophie about the lab.  
  
"Why, did you find something?" She asked him enthusiastically. Alec was both touched and concerned by her embracing of his cause. He worried for her; she had already lost so much. He could hear his Manticore handlers now. Too sentimental, 494. Your attachments will get you killed. The months he'd spent in solitary after Rachel. Focus, Alec, focus.  
  
"Maybe. Do you know anything about the Forsythe Lab?"  
  
"Yeah, it's an old school out on in what used to be the exclusive western suburbs. It's all pretty deserted now, so they keep the major research labs out there. I've been to Forsythe, never seen too much though, they keep it all pretty well locked up."  
  
"So you wouldn't know what they do?"  
  
"Not really. I know we get research from them, and I know they keep patients there all the time."  
  
"Patients?"  
  
"Well, maybe guinea pigs are a better word."  
  
"I think they may have one of my people there."  
  
Sophie sighed. "I should have known. I wonder if that's the only one. Are you going to break them out?"  
  
"I guess. But I need plans to the facility first."  
  
"I think I may be able to help you with that." Sophie smiled, and Alec felt his resolve to avoid attachments slipping. He reached across the table, took her hand, and smiled boyishly back at her.  
  
Sophie was able to pull together some schematics for him, and Alec was able to procure himself a motorcycle and other necessities, and within a week, he had a firm plan. He would make the break-in on a Saturday morning, starting at around two. The facility was isolated, on a hill. The security was fairly tight, but the guards appeared to become engrossed in poker at around midnight and by two were oblivious to the woods surrounding them. He called in to work Friday and slept, preparing for the night. His dreams were at first warm, dreams of Max's smile, their bodies spooned in the moonlight. Peaceful moments, rare and beautiful. But even in his dream, he knew it was fleeting and he dreamed the same thing he had seen thousands of times played again and again in his mind. Rachel's scream, the explosion.  
  
He awoke in the quiet apartment with a start, breathless. Surrounded by Sophie and Tess' things, he suddenly felt overwhelmed by the desire to just forget Manticore and Max and all of it. Just lose himself here, become a person not a number. He felt insanely jealous of Biggs for a brief moment, for ever having had all this for even as short a time as he did. The memory of Biggs' body stifled that, but he couldn't shake the desire to just forget. He got up and started getting ready.  
  
By the time Sophie came home from work, Alec was ready. She came in and looked him over.  
  
"Wow, you really do look like a cat burglar."  
  
Alec avoided her eyes. "Where's Tess?"  
  
"My mom's. I thought it would be.easier that way."  
  
"Thanks." His voice was thick.  
  
"Alec, are you ok?" Sophie asked, as she touched his cheek tenderly. He looked at her and smiled, his bitterness leaking through his eyes.  
  
"Yeah, I'm always ok."  
  
Sophie smiled back at him, and kissed him softly on the lips. He tensed slightly, then relaxed into the kiss, embracing her. She tilted her head back to look at his face.  
  
"Promise you'll come back to me in one piece."  
  
"Sophie.I.."  
  
"Promise me."  
  
Alec looked into Sophie's eyes and was lost. "I promise, I'll come back to you."  
  
He leaned down and kissed her, pulling her up to him. Their bodies crushed together; for a long moment he was filled with her scent, intoxicated by her warmth. Finally, they pulled apart. They looked into each other's eyes, and she reached up and stroked his cheek.  
  
"Come back." Sophie voice was choked with emotion.  
  
"I will. I promise." He kissed her on the forehead, grabbed his duffel bag of gear, and left. 


	3. Chapter 3

Alec pulled the motorcycle into the driveway of what had once been an expensive and ornate home. Now it was deserted. He pulled the motorcycle into an empty shed, and started to walk up the back of the hill, coming up behind the great gothic brick building. He moved silently, creeping unseen through the trees like a panther. He came to the perimeter fence and jumped over, landing on the other side with a light thud. He looked at his watch. 01:45. Perfect.  
  
As he crept along the darkened path, Alec's senses were primed. He got to the wall, so far so good. He shot a bolt up onto the roof with a rope attached and rappelled his way up the brick façade of the building. He could hear every sound, every scuff of his shoes on the mortar, every insect in the woods around him. He reached the roof and looked around. According to the schematics Sophie had procured, a hatch nearby would lead down to a room where Alec believed the other X5 was. As his luck would have it, the hatch was bolted shut. Damnit. Alec prowled around the roof looking for another entrance down. He could see a sloped Gothic section of roof that he could jump over to and then he could climb down and get in through one of the windows, but if his rescuee was unable to move, he'd be screwed. Crap. He also would be further away from the records room than he'd hoped. Oh, well, this was what he's spent the first twenty years of his life training to do. Might as well get started.  
  
Alec made the leap from the flat section to the sloped one, but botched the landing. He slid down the roof, his shoes scraping on the slate. He stopped at the gutter, but a spray of twigs and slate chunks hit the ground with a rat-a-tat. Alec froze, listening intently for the sound of alarms, guards, dogs, anything. Nothing, just the rustling of leaves he had been hearing all night and the distant sound of the guards laughing. He breathed again, and climbed back up. He slid along the roof to the window, which projected out of the roof like a tent. The window was locked, but Alec could see there was no other security on it. He jimmied the lock, and slid into the room. It appeared to be a lab. Which meant he had a whole lot of creeping to do before he could even think about getting out of here. He went out into the darkened hallway, his transgenic eyes picking out the shadows, moving cat-like towards the record room. He arrived incident free and checked his watch. 02:15. Four hours until dawn, slightly more until the shift change. He figured as long as he was out by five, he was safe.  
  
The door to the records room was sealed to a numerical lock, which Alec cracked in 30 seconds. Child's play, he thought, for children with training in burglary. The files were locked but Alec was soon leafing through the documents within. Most used the letterhead of Conrad Pharmaceuticals and were normal boring lab documents. But the older paperwork had the letterhead of Advanced Recombinant Technologies. A bell went off in Alec's head. That was the name of one of the companies that had inhabited Terminal City. Max had thought they were related to Sandeman, but Alec couldn't remember the details. But his interest was piqued. He looked further, but time was running out. None of the papers were worth taking and none were related to the tryptophan problem. Damnit. There was some information about the X5 in captivity, as well as hinting at least one other X class that had been held at some point in the past. The records had been purged recently most likely immediately following the fall of Manticore.  
  
Alec left the records room and began the long walk to the room in which he thought the X5 was being kept. He crept down the hallway, the silence of the building occasionally broken by the shouts and laughter of the guards rendered oblivious by their cards. The journey took him about ten minutes. He looked at his watch; he still had time as long as the prisoner inside was mobile, otherwise he wasn't sure. The door was effectively locked and it was another ten minutes before he could get into the room. It was a smaller room with a deeply pitched roof. There were several banks of machinery, all of which bore the Advanced Recombinant Technologies caduceus symbol. In the middle of it all were two cryochambers. One was obviously empty and looked as though it had been smashed. The other showed some signs of damage but looked both functional and occupied. Alec peered into the second chamber and saw a beautiful blonde, obviously of Manticore design. He looked at the control panel and recognized it as being the same used at the Gillette facility. He began the shut down sequence. While the chamber was defrosting its inhabitant, Alec went over to look at the other coffin like box. It looked like someone had taken a crow bar to it, like they had tried to utterly destroy it in a rage. He noticed that the lock was broken and he opened the chamber. The inner padding was torn out, and there were still streaks of blood on the white fibers. Alec shuddered as he imagined the inhabitant awaking and attempting to claw their way out of the cryochamber. An X class probably based on the damage left behind. Alec heard the gasp of the machine behind him and turned to see the door opening. He walked over as the figure inside sat up slowly, and then looked at him, a look of joy and surprise on her face.  
  
A smile lit her pale face and Alec could barely hear her as she spoke a single word, a name that chilled him to the bone: "Ben!?" 


	4. Chapter 4

Alec stared at the X5 in the freezer, unable to breathe as if he had been punched in the gut.  
  
She stared at him, "Ben, you came for me! I was beginning to think you were dead." She got out of the freezer and moved towards the door. Numbly, Alec followed her. "How many guards are there?"  
  
"I.I'm not Ben. I'm his twin but I can't explain now. The guards are downstairs but I was planning on leaving through the roof."  
  
She stared at him and a look of puzzlement briefly washed over her face. She was confused, but like any X5, not slowed. She held out her hand for him to shake.  
  
"Jondy."  
  
He smiled, and shook her hand, "Alec. Let's get out of here."  
  
Jondy nodded and took some clothes from a bin, scrubs but better than nothing. Alec looked out into the hall. Clear. He signaled to Jondy to follow him. They crept down the hallway. She then signaled to him to follow her. A signaling argument ensued and Jondy just went off in her own direction. Alec looked at his watch. 4:15. Running out of time, but still ok.  
  
Or maybe not. Alec could hear the confrontation before he could see it. Three guards, no alarm pulled yet. He jumped into the fray as Jondy attacked a guard to the left. Alec quickly knocked one guard out before moving on to the next one. He blocked and parried while looking for an opening. He swept his opponent to the floor and slammed the guard's head onto the floor knocking him out. Alec moved to help Jondy with hers, just to see the guard hit the floor. Jondy gestured towards a door and signaled to move the guards in. Alec picked one up and went over to the door. It was locked, but he was able to pick it easily. They slid the guards in and Alec started out.  
  
"Wait." Jondy whispered. She walked over to a cabinet and reached in. She pulled out a vial and held it up for him to see. "This is what it was all for!"  
  
She started for the door. Alec followed her, curious, but eager to get the hell out of this place.  
  
They made their way to the roof and climbed to the cold ground below. By dawn they had made it back to the abandoned house and Alec's motorcycle. They had just enough time to grab Jondy some warmer clothes and hop back on the motorcycle before sirens began to sound over the valley. When the guards had followed their tracks to the house, the pair was long gone. 


End file.
